Kazuhiro Yamauchi

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Note: This page discusses Japanese Baseball Hall of Famer Kazuhiro Yamauchi. For the pitcher of the same name, click here.

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Kazuhiro Yamauchi (山内 一弘)

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Biographical Information[edit]

Kazuhiro Yamauchi was one of the top players in Nippon Pro Baseball in the 1950s and 1960s.

Yamauchi failed a tryout with the Chunichi Dragons, went to play in the industrial leagues, then was signed a couple years later by the Mainichi Orions. He emerged as a star in 1954, hitting .308/.402/.532 with 28 homers, 97 RBI and 80 walks. He led the Pacific League in RBI, and he was 4th in batting (between Kozo Kawai and Katsuki Tokura), 4th in hits (between Hiroshi Oshita and Futoshi Nakanishi) and 2nd in homers (3 behind Nakanishi). He made the first of 13 consecutive All-Star teams, and he crushed a homer against Takumi Otomo in the 1954 NPB All-Star Game 1. He was 4-for-5 in Game 2, and he won the MVP. Yamauchi also set the CL record with 80 walks in a season, and he won his first Best Nine.

The next year, he had the best OBP of his career (.422), slugged .563, drove in 99 (leading the league again) and hit 31 doubles, the most in the PL. He edged Futoshi Nakanishi in the RBI race despite Nakanishi's Nishitetsu Lions pitching around Yamauchi late in the year, and he won another Best Nine. Yamauchi ranked 2nd in batting (.007 behind Nakanishi), 2nd in homers (9 behind Nakanishi) and 3rd in hits (between Bunjiro Sakamoto and Nakanishi). He shined again in the 1955 NPB All-Star Game1, and he went 2-for-4 with a game-winning homer against Kazunori Nishimura to win the MVP in Game 1; he was 1-for-4 in Game 2.

In '56, Yamauchi continued to lead the league in two fairly significant offensive categories a year - this time it was doubles (47, setting a new NPB record, since broken by Phil Clark in 1998) and total bases (282). He also stole a career-high 16 bases, and he was 6th in hits (between Nobushige Morishita and Nakanishi), 3rd in batting (between Kohei Sugiyama and Nakanishi) and 2nd in homers (4 behind Nakanishi). He made his third straight Best Nine, and he was selected into the 1956 NPB All-Star Game. Yamauchi went 2-for-4 in Game 1, but he was hitless in 4 at-bats in Game 2.

Yamauchi made it 4 Best Nines in a row when he batted .331/.421/.621 for a career high in slugging and OPS in 1957. He again had the most total bases (270) and also won his only batting title. He was blocked by Nakanishi from winning other titles again, and he ranked 4th in RBI (19 behind Nakanishi) and 2nd in homers (1 behind Katsuya Nomura). He again shined in the All-Star Game, crushing a homer against Ryohei Hasegawa in Game 1. In 1958 Yamauchi missed a Best Nine and failed to lead the league in anything. He hit "only" .285/.374/.508 and was limited to 76 games. He still tied Kihachi Enomoto and Yasumitsu Toyoda for 6th in homers despite missing most of the season due to injuries, and he was 1-for-4 in the 1958 NPB All-Star Game

1959 was a rebound year for Yamauchi, who returned to the Best Nine and topped the Pacific League in doubles (32) and won his first homer title with 25. He was also 2nd in batting (.002 behind Sugiyama), 6th in hits (tied with Tadashi Hatta) and 5th in RBI (between Masahiro Nakata and Sugiyama). He set an NPB record by hitting two-baggers in six straight contests and drove in nine runs in one game. He was 2-for-4 with a game-winning, 2-run homer against Yoshio Kitagawa in the 1959 NPB All-Star Game 1, and he won his third All-Star MVP. Yamauchi was the first player to win this award three times, and he played well again in Game 2 as he collected 3 hits in 4 at-bats.

Yamauchi scored a career-high 93 in 1960 when he won his only MVP award, and he got 136 votes in the MVP voting. He batted .313/.395/.580, hit 32 homers and drove in 103, and he won his 6th Best Nine award. He led the league with 280 total bases, his third time leading in that statistic, and also led the league in both RBI and homers. Yamauchi crushed a solo home run against Masaaki Koyama in the 1960 NPB All-Star Game, and he was 4-for-12 in the entire series. In 1961, Yamauchi led in RBI for the fourth and final time, with a career high of 112. He ranked 5th in batting (between Sugiyama and Kusuo Tanaka), 6th in hits (between Katsutoyo Yoshida and Akitoshi Kodama), 5th in doubles (tied with Hachiro Yamamoto) and 3rd in homers (between Nomura and Isao Harimoto).

The Aichi native posted his best batting average when he hit .334/.409/.551 in 1962; he appeared on his 4th straight Best Nine, and it was his 8th overall. He led the league in doubles for the fourth and final time, with 38. Yamauchi also ranked 2nd in batting (.040 behind Jack Bloomfield), 7th in RBI (between Bloomfield and Yasumitsu Toyoda), 5th in homers (tied with Yoshida) and 3rd in hits (tied with Harimoto). After that he would only hit .300 once more, after reaching the mark in 8 of 10 prior seasons. He never would lead the league in a key offensive statistic again as well. 1963 saw Yamauchi post a career high in a different key stat for the 4th year in a row, with 33 homers. Yamauchi made his 9th Best Nine; he would make the Best Nine only one more time in his career. He was 2nd in homers (tied with Harimoto), 3rd in RBI (between Harimoto and Kent Hadley) and 9th in batting (between Nomura and Harimoto).

After 1963 Yamauchi was traded by the Orions to the Hanshin Tigers for Koyama in one of the biggest deals in NPB history and hit .257/.346/.500 with 31 homers. He broke Noboru Aota's record and became NPB's all-time homers leader with a longball against Yukinori Miyata on May 2. He also ranked 3rd in homers (tied with Jim Marshall and Shigeo Nagashima) and 3rd in RBI (between Takeshi Kuwata and Nagashima in the Central League. While no longer a superstar, he was clearly the top power threat on a Hanshin team that won the Central League pennant, but went down to defeat to Nankai in the Japan Series four games to three despite Yamauchi hitting .360 with two homers; he connected for almost as many homers as the team's next 3 sluggers combined. He won the fighting spirit award. Tigers pitcher Gene Bacque befriended Yamauchi, who shared his interest in hunting. Yamauchi also served as a teacher and mentor for the younger Tigers players.

Now only a good contributor on offense, the 33-year-old Yamauchi continued to climb the all-time leaderboards. In 1965, he became the first player in NPB history to smack 300 career home runs, and he did it against Kunio Jonouchi on August 4. Yamauchi ended up hitting .261/.322/.450 with 20 homers, and he was 5th in homers (between Kuwata and Marshall) and 6th in RBI (tied with Mike Krsnich). Yamauchi crushed 18 homers with a .256/.332/.438 batting line in 1966, and he was 7th in homers (tied with Toshio Naka), 5th in doubles (between Kazuyoshi Yamamoto and Naka and 10th in runs (between Yamamoto and Eiji Fujii). He was also selected into the 1966 NPB All-Star Game, but he was 0-for-4 in 3 games.

In 1967, his run of 13 consecutive All-Star teams was broken, but he became the second man in NPB history to reach 2,000 career hits; he did it on October 14 against Kiichi Yoshie. '68 saw Yamauchi move to the Hiroshima Carp and become the first player in Japan to play in 2,000 games. Yamauchi had a resurgent year, at .313/.378/.500 with 21 homers and made his tenth Best Nine team, after a 4-year absence from receiving that honor. It was his first and only Best Nine in the Central League and he returned to the All-Star team. He was 8th in homers (tied with Tatsuhiko Kimata and Sachio Kinugasa) and 3rd in batting (between Shinichi Eto and Nagashima). Yamauchi had his 12th 20-homer season in 1969 when he hit .274/.369/.516 with 21 long balls, and he tied Shiro Takegami and Yamamoto for 10th in homers. He played on his 16th All-Star team in 1970, his final season, when he hit .257/.345/.424. He crushed a homer in 39 different stadiums, and that was the NPB record.

After his playing career ended, Yamauchi was a coach for the Hanshin Tigers from 1975 to 1977, managed the Lotte Orions from 1979 to 1981, managed Chunichi from 1984 to 1986, was the batting coach for the Yomiuri Giants from 1987 through 1989, occupied the same role for the Orix Blue Wave from 1991 to 1993, his 5th straight job that took three years of his time. In 1995 and 1996, he was batting coach for Hanshin once again, ending his tenure in NPB. In 1998, he coached for the China Trust Whales in Taiwan. In 2002, Yamauchi was named to the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame. Yamauchi died of liver failure in 2009.

Overall, Yamauchi hit .295/.378/.521 in his career. His 396 homers rank 21st all-time in NPB (between Takeshi Yamasaki and Yasunori Oshima); he also is among the career leaders in triples (54, tied Kazuo Horii and Tomotaka Sakaguchi for 36th), doubles (448, 3rd between Yutaka Fukumoto and Tomoaki Kanemoto), hits (2,271, 18th between Morimichi Takagi and Katsuo Osugi), average (37th between Kenji Johjima and Norihiro Akahoshi), RBI (1,286, 19th between Takahiro Arai and Shinnosuke Abe), runs (1,218, 15th between Isao Shibata and Hayato Sakamoto), total bases (4,015, 13th between Osugi and Koji Akiyama), walks (1,061, 14th between Kihachi Enomoto and Takashi Toritani) and games (2,235, tied for Osugi and Kazuya Fukuura for 26th) as of 2024. Yamauchi was the career double leader when he retired before Yutaka Fukumoto surpassed him in the mid-80s, and he was still the career assist leader as an outfielder with 175.

Sources[edit]

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